President Obama and the First Lady both made international trips this week that illustrate some of the primary tensions—Russia and Ukraine; Japan, China, and South Korea—in American foreign policy. “Asia is the great rising power. It makes strategic sense to pivot to Asia,” John Cassidy says. “But that raises two problems: what you actually do in Asia, because you immediately run into the Japanese–Chinese rivalry, which is what the U.S. has done; and where does that leave Europe, where things are not quite as tidy as they appeared ten years ago.” On the Political Scene podcast, Cassidy and Evan Osnos join host Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the agendas of the two trips.
“What Obama’s had to do this week is to reassure the Europeans that the Atlantic alliance is still in safe hands,” Cassidy continues. “And I think he did a pretty good job of that.” Meanwhile, for the First Lady, Osnos says, “The goal was, on the one hand, to do what the White House calls ‘people-to-people diplomacy,’ to step beyond the very sensitive issues that are at the heart of the relationship with China—trade, human rights, obviously espionage—to try to get to the deeper foundation, which is that these two countries have to figure out a way to get along and to promote exchange.”
The President, Osnos says, is “comfortable going over and delivering a mixed message,” which is one of his strengths but also a point of attack for his political foes.
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